


Anniversary

by kelly_chambliss



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drabble, Drabble Sequence, Gen, Post-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Severus Snape Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:54:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29410821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelly_chambliss/pseuds/kelly_chambliss
Summary: Ten times Severus Snape lives through the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts.
Kudos: 17





	Anniversary

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2021 "Snapecase" fest on LiveJournal. Thanks to my excellent beta, The Real Snape (TRS).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

**  
First Anniversary -- 2 May 1999  
**

Severus Snape passes the first anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts in a magically-induced coma for which his distrust of Voldemort had long driven him to prepare. His precautions were wise: Nagini's bite left him barely enough time to Apparate to his safehouse and activate his stasis charms.

Balto, the House elf, was waiting for him. Ever loyal to Slytherin, he never hesitated to commit himself to Snape's care, however long the recovery might take.

For a year, Snape has been dead to all the world but Balto.

Though if he dreams of snakes and sibilance, not even Balto knows.

**Second Anniversary -- 2 May 2000**

"Potions Master must eat his soup," Balto says, his tone brooking no dissent. 

By now, Snape knows better than to argue; he contents himself with muttering, yet again, "Potions master no longer, thank Salazar."

Pathetic invalid that he is, he can manage only a few hours a day on his feet, not that he would have continued to teach no matter what his health.

He continues to brew, however. Soup alone won't heal him. He needs potions, and, as always, he trusts no work but his own. 

He brews, he rests, he reads, and he does not think of Hogwarts.

**Third Anniversary -- 2 May 2001**

By the third anniversary of the Battle, Snape is restored to health...such as it is. He's never been robust and is now so thin that he fancies he can hear his bones rattle inside his skin.

But he can care for himself. He offers Balto his freedom and is unsurprised when the elf accepts; Slytherins value independence.

Snape's own need for independence--financially speaking--is becoming acute. He decides to seek employment among Muggles.

On noticing the date, he snorts quietly.

How fitting to be reborn as a Muggle on the anniversary of the night he died as a wizard.

**Fourth Anniversary -- 2 May 2002**

Brewing skills, it transpires, are as valuable to Muggles as to magicals. Snape finds work crafting beer and tending bar near Oxford; the area holds enough tourists and transients that he attracts little attention. There aren't many local wizards, so he doesn't fear recognition. Still, he wears a glamour. Just in case. Constant vigilance, as someone once said.

"Busy night, innit?" observes old Harkins, a regular with an annoying penchant for stating the obvious. Rather like some of Snape's erstwhile Hogwarts colleagues. "Like a bloody bank 'oliday."

"Holiday, no," replies Snape, letting his memory brush the Battle. "But definitely bloody."

**Fifth Anniversary -- 2 May 2003**

He continues to take _The Daily Prophet_ , for reasons he doesn't examine too closely. Habit, partly. And caution, of course. He can't afford ignorance; he knows he'll never be completely out of danger from his past.

But there is curiosity, too. Even, if he is honest, a touch of regret.

Yet when he reads of the memorial for the fifth anniversary of the Battle, it all seems distant, a tale of a different world and someone else's life.

Snape is reminded of a line from a Muggle play: "But that was in another country.

"And besides, the wench is dead."

**Sixth Anniversary -- 2 May 2004**

Today, the scars on his neck are a web of pain, and Snape can taste the acrid burn of dark magic at the back of his throat. It takes him this way sometimes, Nagini's bite, even after all these years.

He has to fight lethargy in his limbs, resorting to hidden flicks of his wand even to uncap beers. He responds to the ubiquitous Harkins and other regulars with mere grunts, though in truth, this behaviour is not so unusual as to raise comment.

Not until close to midnight, as he tries vainly to sleep, does Snape remember the date.

**Seventh Anniversary -- 2 May 2005**

In the seventh year, the dreams begin. He would have expected nightmares full of fangs and torture, unrelenting images of mad red eyes, of Charity Burbage, of Dumbledore's endless fall.

Instead, each night, he dreams he's at Hogwarts, talking magical theory with Filius or delivering potions to Poppy or eating savory meals in the Great Hall.

He doesn't know which is worse: waking hours filled with guilt, or sleeping hours filled with reminders of what's been lost.

On the seventh anniversary, he dreams he is in the sun-lit staff room, arguing Quidditch with Minerva, her hand warm on his shoulder.

**Eighth Anniversary -- 2 May 2006**

Restless, Snape leaves Oxford in the eighth year of his rebirth. His exile. Whatever one calls it.

He goes to Warwickshire, taking perverse pleasure in the irony of sending himself to Coventry. By the second of May, he's working a new pub that is mostly indistinguishable from the old. The garrulous old-timer, called Hotwell, is simply Harkins by another name, and the yobbos and the punters are the same.

For now, Coventry suits Snape. Like the town's cathedral, bombed by Muggles in yet another war and then rebuilt, he's risen from the ashes of himself. 

Even if some ruins remain.

**Ninth Anniversary -- 2 May 2007**

The dreams and the _Daily Prophet_ follow Snape to Coventry. Now, however, he dreams not of Hogwarts past, but of an unsettling, impossible future in which he serves as Minerva's deputy and becomes an animagus at night. A tarantula. Or a bat.

The _Prophet_ is unsettling, too. He is not surprised that Voldemort's defeat did not end blood prejudice, but he is disturbed to see stories about how strong it remains.

And of course, there's the inevitable article about the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. Why can't they let it go? Move on?

The way he wishes he could.

**Tenth Anniversary -- 2 May 2008**

Far from moving on, the wizarding world marks the tenth anniversary with a massive memorial at Hogwarts. That this plan is the Ministry's and not the Headmistress's, Snape can deduce from Minerva's terse interview in the _Prophet_.

All day, between pints and shots, he considers going to the castle, appearing with a bang to disrupt the pompous ceremony. The notion has its appeal.

Often now, he fantasises about revealing himself to Minerva or Filius. Settling the past.

And he may do it. Today. Or next year.

Or the next.

An order comes, and Snape slides another pint along the bar.

~~fin


End file.
